ArmA2's latest patch was officially released yesterday after months of beta patches, and it unexpectedly brought with it a number of nerfs to weapons used in DayZ. The thing that the most people have noticed is that revolvers and M1911's can't one shot zombies anymore... but it gets worse.

It's not all nerfs though! The Dinner Bell may be losing its name: the audible range on the Lee Enfield went down from 234m to 162m. It's now more in line with guns like the AKM or FN FAL. That's a nice usability improvement, and in my own opinion, a more reasonable amount of damage for the gun. I'm curious to see how all of these changes will affect the game in the coming days.

Comments

i think only the Enfield is qualify to nerf. Dont understand why M1911 shouldnt do one-shot-kills to Zombies .. and even all the other pistols did so less damage, now its more effective to through empty tins :/ !!
-maybe dayz-developers would react with setting zombies blood level down ?

Edited by Coolbreaker on 2012/07/26

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By zg7 on 2012/07/26 at 3:44pm

Thanks for the update, I guess it's good to see it wasn't something the players were imagining. :P

+1-

By Techercizer on 2012/07/26 at 4:34pm

I wonder if Rocket will adjust gun balance to compensate for this change? While my first instinct is to jump to "yes", after thinking about it I think it's more likely he'll leave things as is.

Rocket has never been in the business of balancing weapons to date, and he hasn't exactly shown a fierce attachment to the status quo either. Is it a bit odd that it takes 4 revolver bullets to kill a zombie? Yeah, sort of. We'll adapt though. We will get used to it and move forward from here, until the old ways seem strange and archaic, as we always have.

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By Vantage on 2012/07/26 at 5:57pm

Well, first thing I'm doing tonight is ditching my M9 Suppressed and getting a new M1911... There is no way the 9mm's will be able to effectively kill. This sure is a game changer.

Great, now just spawned players have an even minor chance against bored bandits. It makes zombies slightly less easy though.
They should nerf down the 5,56mm family too, for balance sake. I'm holding dearly to my M16 now.

Wait, Makarovs were once more powerful than the nines?

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By Restavon on 2012/07/27 at 2:32am

This basically makes the game unplayable for me at this time. If the tracking was working I would have a chance to get in more than one hit on a zed. But since they were all Olympic sprinters in life and can teleport, we are doomed.

+3-

By Thunder on 2012/07/27 at 3:16am

sooo the only "good" guns left are the already overpowered (in terms of balance, not realism) snipers plus FAL and AKM?
nice... NOT
and about the secondary weapons... i might as well carry a flashlight and 8 bandages from now on -.-

+3-

By SC00BYSN4XX on 2012/07/27 at 5:42am

This would explain why my Bizon is firing blanks and the range? wow
If only I could use the gun as a melee weapon, it would be far more efficient.

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By brites on 2012/07/27 at 8:17am

alright so I got a question...
I've been relying on my lovely Enfield to keep me safe from bandits, and all I'd like to know is:
does a shot to the head kill in one shot in this game or there is no located damage?

+-1-

By nomadman144 on 2012/07/27 at 8:20am

one more, they should nerf players health now and
addsome to zombies and make them a bit slower
or nerf their health too, because there is no need to use sidearms anymore
(+4 bandages WOW!)

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By Fathomir on 2012/07/27 at 9:40am

The MP5 is basically a useless primary now that its even less powerful, that the 1911 is more usefull...ammo is harder to find for that then regular AK .35 rounds, and now that those are tuned down M1A1 seems like the only 'decent' assault primary rifle. This is kinda a bummer because the Kobra is one of my favorite weapons in the game.

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By TankPotato on 2012/07/27 at 10:27am

Half of these weapons already took too many shots to kill enemy players! WHY MAKE THEM NEED MORE. No human can withstand a full clip of any pistol in the chest............

+1-

By Klonas on 2012/07/27 at 10:28am

Why nerf Makarov? It takes almost an entire mag to kill one zombie. That's a bit rediculous. Completely useless now.

+3-

By JermEx on 2012/07/27 at 10:55am

I'm glad for it. Makes zombies harder to kill, ammunition more precious.
Maybe you'll think twice about killing a character who isn't carrying a weapon, no ammo.

+7-

By Panque on 2012/07/27 at 11:38am

@angrybold Your comment just gave me cancer. L85 isn't OP. There is no such thing as a OP gun, as long as it exists in our real world and could appear in chernarus somehow (wreck from british chopter) it's fine. And please don't start talking about tanks and nukes, thats an old and lame argument. Aside from that, you are talking like the DayZ dev team nerfed those weapons (they are the only ones that could get tired of your QQ and remove the L85 from the game), but that was Bohemia, developer of the game you paid for. On ArmA 2: OA humans don't have 12k of blood and there are no zombies, so the nerf might make sense to that game. DayZ should somehow adapt to that in the following patches.

+5-

By Panque on 2012/07/27 at 1:31pm

Good news. Rocket now knows about this and will sse what he can do: http://pt.reddit.com/r/dayz/comments/x7ek1/weapon_damage_nerfs_in_arma2_162_full_details/c5k7u2f

+1-

By re6ter on 2012/07/27 at 2:39pm

I agree with these nerfs. It makes the game more challenging.

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By Slyder73 on 2012/07/27 at 3:09pm

Response to the following; you don't understand how firearms work then.
the .45 revolver and .45 1911 fire the same round. The projectile has the stopping power and the gas used to cycle the slide on the 1911 pistol has no effect on the power of the bullet. It has already left the barrel. Same with the Enfield, bolt or semi-auto has nothing to do with it. The gas system does not take away from the bullets stopping power or velocity.
I can see what they are doing. They have made ALL the 9mm for example, the same, which they should be. A 9mm bullet fired from a Bizon or from a Glock will have the exact same power, the difference will be in accuracy and slightly in velocity (given the longer barrel).
While it makes sense to equalize the like cartridges, I think the damage has been dialed down too low to be realistic.

Zurruck Said,
this is ****, how a revolver can do the same damage than an m1911, this gun use a gas system so have less stoping power than revolvers, is the same for the lee enfield, is a bolt action, so doesnt use part of the energy in charge new ammo, and is more powerfull.
and i think hanguns need more damage, because they are in olmost cases the only defense front a bandit....